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Assessment of a Numerical Method for Computing the Spherical Harmonic Coefficients of the Gravitational Potential of a Constant Density Polyhedron

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Gravity, Geoid and Earth Observation

Part of the book series: International Association of Geodesy Symposia ((IAG SYMPOSIA,volume 135))

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Abstract

This study focuses on the assessment of a linear algorithm for computing the spherical harmonic coefficients of the gravitational potential of a constant density polyhedron. The ability to compute such an expansion would favor several applications, in particular in the field of the interpretation and assessment of GOCE gravitational models. The studied algorithm is the only known method that would achieve this computation at a computational cost depending linearly on the number of computed coefficients. We show that although this methods suffers from severe divergence issues, it could be applied to retrieve band-limited estimates of the potential generated by a constant density polyhedron.

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Correspondence to O. Jamet .

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Jamet, O., Verdun, J., Tsoulis, D., Gonindard, N. (2010). Assessment of a Numerical Method for Computing the Spherical Harmonic Coefficients of the Gravitational Potential of a Constant Density Polyhedron. In: Mertikas, S. (eds) Gravity, Geoid and Earth Observation. International Association of Geodesy Symposia, vol 135. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10634-7_58

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